Rate My Professor Laura Skates

Dr. Laura Skates (she/her) is an Associate Lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences within the Faculty of Science at the University of Western Australia. Based in Perth on Whadjuk Noongar country, she is a botanist, artist, and environmental educator whose work focuses on plant interactions with their environments and human-plant relationships. She teaches science communication units including SCOM5309 Citizen Science and SCOM3319 Exhibitions & Interpretation. Her research specializations encompass botany, carnivorous plants, plant ecology, conservation biology, science communication, citizen science, and environmental education. Skates employs natural abundance stable isotope techniques to explore nutritional rewards from prey in carnivorous plants, contributing insights into their ecological strategies.

Skates completed her PhD at the University of Western Australia in 2021, with the thesis titled 'How carnivorous are carnivorous plants? Exploring nutritional rewards from prey using stable isotope techniques.' Supervised by Gerhard Gebauer, Adam Cross, Jason Stevens, Kingsley Dixon, and Erik Veneklaas, the work analyzed sticky-leaved carnivorous plants such as Drosophyllum lusitanicum from Mediterranean Europe and Drosera and Byblis species from Western Australia, including the role of hemipteran Setocoris in Byblis nutrition. She proposed a new definition and conceptual 'spectrum of carnivory.' Key publications include 'An ecological perspective on "plant carnivory beyond bogs": nutritional benefits of prey capture for the Mediterranean carnivorous plant Drosophyllum lusitanicum' (Annals of Botany, 2019, with Paniw, Cross, Ojeda, Dixon, Stevens, and Gebauer); 'Capture of mammal excreta by Nepenthes is an effective heterotrophic nutrition strategy' (Annals of Botany, 2022, with Cross, van der Ent, Wickmann, Sumail, Gebauer, and Robinson); 'Use of wildlife-friendly structures in residential gardens by animal wildlife: evidence from citizen scientists in a global biodiversity hotspot' (Urban Ecosystems, 2024, with Van Helden and Close); and 'Population ecology of the endangered aquatic carnivorous macrophyte Aldrovanda vesiculosa at a naturalised site in North America' (Freshwater Biology, 2015, with Cross, Adamec, Hammond, Sheridan, and Dixon). Her career includes community engagement and environmental education positions with the UWA Institute of Agriculture, Herdsman Lake Discovery Centre, Kings Park Science, and Perth NRM's ReWild Perth program. She co-led the Turning Gardeners into Conservationists citizen science project with Perth NRM and UWA, investigating wildlife-friendly gardening for biodiversity and human well-being. Following her PhD, she undertook an Australian Postgraduate Research Internship on science communication at botanic gardens, supported by Friends of Kings Park and Kings Park Science. She is an active member of the Australian Citizen Science Association and Australian Science Communicators.